What happened when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi voluntarily rid Libya of weapons of mass destruction? The US dishonored a previous promise to lay off Libya, and sanctioned an invasion by proxy and a regime change. That turned out as wonderfully as America’s other regime-change adventures (yielding a refugee invasion of Europe, among other things).

Talking to Brooke Baldwin of CNN, DAVID E. SANGER, expert on North Korea, seconded that fear of the US’s regime-change habit is a factor in the frightening displays of military might of the ostracized North Korean regime.

“… This is all about survival for Kim Jung Un. He’s not likely to give up his only ticket to survival. His view of the world is that the US is out to topple his regime. [Is that an unrealistic view?] He looks at a country like Libya which gave up its nascent nuclear technology [but got finished off by the US]. Thus the refrain of many administrations—that Kim should give up his nuclear weapons—is unlikely to happened.”